Steve Loach, Principal Democratic Services Officer for North Yorkshire County Council welcomed everyone to the meeting and confirmed that as it was the first meeting of the committee in this Council, the first item of business would be the election of a Chairman.

There were one nomination for the positon of Chairman of the committee, Councillor Yvonne Peacock.  Votes were taken and on a show of hands Councillor Peacock was elected as Chairman of the committee to serve until the first meeting of the committee following the AGM in May 2023.

Resolved –

That Councillor Yvonne Peacock be appointed Chairman, to serve until the first meeting of the committee following the AGM in May 2023.

Resolved - That the Minutes of the meeting of the Richmond Area Constituency Committee held on 6 June 2022, having been printed and circulated, be taken as read, and confirmed and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

The Chairman asked for nominations for the Vice Chairman of the Committee, to serve until the first meeting of the Committee following the Annual Meeting of the Council in 2023.

Councillor Peter Wilkinson was nominated and seconded, and following a unanimous vote it was

Resolved -

That Councillor Peter Wilkinson be appointed Vice Chairman, to serve until the first meeting of the Committee following the Annual Meeting of the Council in 2023.

There were no declarations of interest.

Members of the public may ask questions or make statements at this meeting if they

have given notice (including the text of the question/statement) to Steve Loach of

Democratic Services (contact details at the foot of page 1 of the Agenda sheet) by

midday on Friday 27th May 2022. Each speaker should limit themselves to 3 minutes on any item. Members of the public who have given notice will be invited to speak:-

• at this point in the meeting if their questions/statements relate to matters which

are not otherwise on the Agenda (subject to an overall time limit of 30 minutes);

• when the relevant Agenda item is being considered if they wish to speak on a

matter which is on the Agenda for this meeting.

If you are exercising your right to speak at this meeting, but do not wish to be recorded (if a recording is taking place), please inform the Chairman who will instruct those taking a recording to cease while you speak.

There were no public questions or statements.

Considered - A report by Daniel Harry, Democratic Services and Scrutiny Manager, North Yorkshire County Council regarding the work of the Area Constituency Committees.

Some of the key points highlighted in the report were:

·         There were six Area Constituency Committees coterminous with the six Parliamentary constituencies within North Yorkshire.  Each committee met formally in public four times a year

·         Work to develop a new way of working for the area committees was underway as part of the Local Government Review ‘Localities’ work stream

·         It was envisaged that a series of informal, development meetings will be held to enable councillors to build up their understanding of the constituency area and the new operating model of the area committees in the new unitary authority

·         The role of the committee was to improve the quality of life for people in their area by acting as a ‘critical friend’ to policy makers

·         The committee work programme was owned by the committee, with support for its development being provided by Democratic Services.  The emphasis was on items that were: relevant; in the public interest; added value; and being scheduled in a timely and efficient way

·         There were opportunities for the committee to lead on local scrutiny on a matter that had been identified by one of the Council’s five thematic overview and scrutiny committees. 

A number of issues were raised:

·         The meetings of the Area Constituency Committees currently scheduled were those that were ‘business as usual’, with a work programme to be delivered over the course of the next three meetings in 2022/23;

·         There were other places where members can feed into the development of the ACC committees. 

·         A member working group was to be setup in July/August to engage a broad range of councillors on the development of the Area Constituency Committees to further the discussions about the shape and form of the new iteration of the Area Constituency Committees;

·         There was a need for all members to work with the Executive and portfolio holders on the development of the Area Constituency Committees;

·         There was a need to be careful not to overload the new committees with roles and responsibilities as the scope could become unmanageable, but more devolution of decision-making was welcomed e.g. planning and licensing decisions and leading on economic development in their area;

Resolved – That the report be noted.

Considered - A report of the Assistant Chief Executive (Legal and Democratic Services) regarding appointments to Outside Bodies.

Melanie Carr, Principal Democratic Services and Scrutiny Officer introduced the report, confirming that following the elections, the Area Constituency Committees needed to make appointments to Local Bodies, as detailed in Appendices A and B of the report.  Committee members were asked to work through the list asking for nominations, seconders and then moving to a vote, where necessary.

The following appointments to Category 2 Outside Bodies were agreed unanimously:

 Safer Richmondshire Community Safety Local Delivery                  1         CC Carl Les

 Team

In regard to the Safer Richmondshire Community Safety Local Delivery Team, Councillor Carl Les agreef to check if it still met.

The following appointments to Category 3Outside Bodies were also unanimously agreed:

Resolved – That the nominations listed above be approved.

Considered - A report by Daniel Harry, Democratic Services and Scrutiny Manager, on the data profile for the Richmond Area Constituency Committee.

The Chairman introduced the report and confirmed the area profile had been produced to enable members to better understand the area covered by the committee, and to identify ongoing issues that may be worth further consideration.

Members agreed that overall, the headline statistics for the Richmond Area Constituency Committee area showed that it performed in line with or better than the England average. However, it was recognised that the average figures provided might hide some specific localised issues, such as pockets of rural deprivation and the aging population requiring greater access to HAS and NHS services.

In particular Members raised:

·         Concerns about the impact of the increased cost of living and how it might impact upon fuel poverty

·         Affordable housing which needed to be picked up in the new unitary authority

·         The time lags in the data and how relevant it was, in some cases.

Resolved – That the report be noted.

Considered – A report presenting the findings from the three meetings of the Flood Working Group

The three members of the Working Group provided an overview of their work and it was noted that their findings had been fed in to NYCC’s Local Flood Risk Strategy 2022-27 recently drafted by officers.

Emily Mellalieu (Development Management Team Leader, Highways and Co-ordinator for flooding issues at NYCC) thanked the Working Group for the timely work on the review and feedback, and confirmed it had been used to inform the drafting of the Strategy.  She also confirmed the draft Strategy was currently out for public consultation.

Members suggested that Highways should have been more involved in the drafting of the Strategy and officers confirmed there had been input from all the appropriate Authorities including National Highways.

Members agreed it had been an excellent piece of work and it was suggested the Committee receive an update on the implementation of the Strategy and an appropriate time in the future.

Having considered the issues of note arising from the Working Group meetings, and the way they had been used to inform the draft of the strategy, it was

Resolved – That:

i.      The report be noted.

ii.     A future update on the implementation of the new Strategy be added to the Committee’s future work programme.

Considered – Am update report on North Northallerton Bridge, informing Members of the going progress on its delivery

James Kennedy. Highways and Transportation Officer presented the update report, and the following issues were highlighted:-

·          The  bridge was to be resurfaced in the coming week;   

·          Members would be informed of the date for opening the full route to through traffic once checks on the full route of the link road, including an independent road safety audit, had been completed;

·          Works to address the flooding issues on the A684 near the new roundabout had been completed two weeks prior to the ACC meeting;

Resolved – That the update report be noted.

Considered - A report by Daniel Harry, Democratic Services and Scrutiny Manager, North Yorkshire County Council presenting a Risk and Resource Model 2022-25 consultation on behalf of the Police Fire and Crime Commissioner.

The Chairman introduced the report which set out the risks across North Yorkshire and the Fire and Rescue Service resources that were in place to address and reduce those risks across given areas.  She also confirmed the closing date for the consultation was 14 August 2022 i.e. before the next meeting of the Committee.

Members noted the request to consider how best to respond to the consultation and it was suggested that in responding, Committee members should do all they could to make sure the retained fire stations across the constituency area were kept. 

Given the timeframe for formal responses, it was

Resolved - That Committee members would submit individual response to the consultation.

Considered - A report presenting the committee’s draft work programme for the municipal year 2022-23.

Melanie Carr, Principal Democratic Services & Scrutiny Officer introduced the report and asked that Members review the committee’s work programme, taking into account the outcome of discussions on previous agenda items and any other developments taking place across the area.

It was agreed that the Chair would work with the supporting officer to update the draft work programme ahead of the Committee’s next meeting, and it was

Resolved – That the work programme be noted.